Episode 215: The Process of Preparation

Brad got his start in financial advising and has always had a knack for helping people find various ways to cut costs and save money. However, as he began to realize how expensive college is becoming - he shifted his focus. 

He will be the first to tell you that there are a host of different tactics that can be implemented to lower the cost of college, but not everyone knows where to start. 

Additionally, not only is it about setting the children up for the success in the long run but also thinking about the parents’ plan to retire peacefully someday. 

Tune in to episode 215 as Brad explains the importance of late stage college planning, details various ways he spreads the word to the masses and much more! 

For more information: 

Website: tamingthehighcostofcollege.com

LinkedIn: Brad Baldridge

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

While Brad got his start in financial advising, he really began to notice one theme about college. It's expensive. I'll be the first to tell you that someone with two degrees, I echo that sentiment wholeheartedly. But Brad is really here to provide resources, not only to the students, but to families. So with not only getting your high school students to college, with not only making sure that your college student is taking advantage of everything that there is to take advantage of, but also from the parent side of things. Thinking about retirement, thinking about if you're a business owner, entrepreneur, how you could be saving, but also still helping your child and setting them up for success for when they graduate. Because that time will come eventually. Brad also recognizes that with these resources, with these services, it's something that can be unbeknownst to a lot of people. So part of his mission is just the same: getting the word out, letting people know that help is there and that he will do anything in his power to ensure so. So without further ado, enjoy episode 215, the process of preparation. What's going on, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Down to Business Podcast here with Tamar Turner. So, as I was kind of speaking to him a little bit before the interview, I think a lot of y'all will also resonate just knowing who my audience is that we probably needed Brad some years ago in our lives. And he probably would have made things not only easier on ourselves, but maybe even on our parents, um, but more particularly on ourselves, and maybe just made us a little bit more eager, maybe just made us a little less worried. But depending on, you know, your background, depending on how you kind of grew and what your path looked like education-wise, you could kind of be a hit or miss. But I'm really excited to really sit down with Brad today because I also think he'll really be of help to a lot of us still, you know, as we kind of continue to move, as a lot of us now are thinking about having families or already have families or in the process of that and anything. So this can be education, this can be things that you know we pass along for generations to come. So I'm I'm trying to walk a little bit on eggshells. I'm not trying to give too much because I want Brad to really dive into everything and really give y'all everything he has. So before we get into that though, Brad, how's everything on your end? How are you doing today? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me. Good, absolutely. Now, thank you for coming on the podcast. We really appreciate it. So before we get into all things, you know, I know we're gonna have some people tapping in from your end, I know we're gonna have some people tapping in from my side, but we're also gonna have some newcomers along the way who may not know anything about either one of us, but nonetheless came across the episode in some capacity. So, to get everybody on the same page, to bring everybody up to speed and put us on an even playing field, can you just do two things for me? Can you one just tell me a little bit about yourself? And then can you two just tell me what brings you on the Down the Business Podcast today?

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Yeah, so uh my name is Brad Baldridge. I'm a financial planner CFP, and I have a specialty in what I call late stage college planning, which is I help families with high school kids figure out the college process. So I guess that's probably what brings me to the podcast as well, because of that expertise. So, you know, I spend a lot of time working with families trying to figure out if they qualify for need-based aid or merit aid and how they can save and invest, and what they might do differently as far as picking schools or adjusting income or assets in order to qualify for more aid. And then, of course, there's a large swath of the people I work with who don't qualify for any sort of need-based aid, but they still need to pay for college. So if you don't get need-based aid, then you have to focus on merit aid and negotiating with schools and saving and investing and tax planning and some other areas as well.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Gotcha. So, as I said, you probably get you probably have a lot of people that come to you with just stress, with heartache, with confusion, maybe even with a misinformation or miseducation, not knowing certain things. I know with you know, my a story that I tell often is that the a lot of my colleagues in college, when I went to East Carolina University for undergrad in 2014, there was a class that I took, and the professor one day posed a question to us, and he pretty much said, How many people felt prepared for college from a financial age standpoint, from a just ready to go, ready to hit the ground running standpoint? And not a lot of people raised their hand, it was only about three of us, myself included. But the commonality that we had, the three people who raised their hand, was that we all went to public, I mean, we all went to private or charter school. And then he posed the question to the latter. So who did not feel prepared, who, you know, just felt like kind of walking in the dark and not really knowing anything and not really informed about everything? The vast majority then shot their hand up, and all that they pretty much had in common, maybe with the exception of a couple, was that they all went to public, you know, they all went to public schools in some capacities. So that was when I really started to realize that, you know, it my brother, my little brother even went to one of the best public schools in Philadelphia where I'm from. But in looking at the comparison of how we both kind of our college application process, our financial aid process, the information and everything that we did, two totally different processes. And quickly I learned that, you know, sometimes, and it's not fair, but it's it's just like, you know, if you're not willing to pay for education or pay for those specific resources or pay for those unit schools or universities, as they call it, you won't be able to get that necessarily that time, that attention, that true information that you need. And I don't think that that's fair to anyone because you know, I feel like while I raised my hand saying that I felt prepared, there were still a lot of things I needed to learn, still a lot of things I needed to do. But ultimately, there shouldn't be a thing of people just were coming in here blindly. And I that was quickly when I learned that, you know, just the disparities in the education system with aid and everything like that. So initially, right off the bat, my curiosity really becomes why? Why, you know, because I for me, I asked that question because college, financial aid, fast, but it's none of it is fun. None of it is anything. But you know, I feel like with a lot of what makes it kind of stressful, or a lot of what makes it confusing, maybe is just our knowledge or our lack thereof, in a sense, or just thinking, you know, not always necessarily getting the help that we can, not always be getting the best customer service per se, not getting someone like you who's gonna sit down and really take the time with us, see what we qualify for, see what we don't qualify for. So, how did you really propel yourself into this industry? Was this a personal experience? Were you noticing a lot of people around you kind of coming to you and just dealing with things, and you kind of wanted to step in and just do something? What was that like for you getting started?

SPEAKER_00 6:09

Right. Yeah, so uh I started in financial advising, and as college became more expensive, it became a bigger piece of the questions and problems that we were trying to solve. And I realized that there's a lot of strategies and tactics that families can use to lower the cost of college. Now it's almost always painful, but if you can save 10 or 20 percent on the big number that is college, it's you know definitely worth it. And then you know, and often we can save more, but not always. And you know, so that's really the big decision point. Now, if some of the decision points are also around, well, is it worth it at all? I mean, should we just skip it and move on to something else? And I think most people realize that the answer is it depends. It's a there is no, well, this is what everybody should do, whether it's paying for college or choosing a college or whatever it might be. And you know, lots of people talk about return on investment and that kind of stuff. But again, most of the time we're talking about our kids, and when we make very few decisions on what's good for our kids based on return on investment. So, you know, while it's an interesting exercise, it has very little to do with reality, and I think that's you know where a lot of people that are into the numbers, you know, kind of trip up and say, Well, based on my analysis, this is the best school. And then the student says, But I don't want to go there, and then everything breaks down from there.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

I will say that yes, a lot of that back and forth, a lot of that that pain and that heartache does come with that college application process, that deciding and that really trying to figure out and the parents' interests versus the children's interests. And then in my case, I was um a first generation, so it was really, you know, those conversations were even harder to have because sometimes you feel like you don't necessarily have somebody who can resonate with you, who can relate to that. And sometimes they want you to kind of go their path, whether it be military, trade, or anything like that. And like you said, there is no perfect road, there's no blueprint, there's no to say, hey, this is what everybody needs to do in order to get where you want to go, because everybody is different in that sense. So I like that I and I I understand that. And and you spoke to your first how you opened it was so perfect. Now the college has become so expensive because it's crazy now. You know, I'm here and I'm even looking at my high school because my high school is private, so we have to pay for it. It's it's almost a college tuition right now. So it's actually kind of crazy just to see how everything is just slowly but surely, just that foundation is continuing to build. Now, you spoke about it in the beginning. You said late stage college planning. I'm very interested to take a deeper dive just into that, you know, because once we enter high school, I feel like you just hear the talks of college all the time, from freshman year to sophomore year to junior year, arguably the most important year. That's what colleges are looking at, that's what they're paying attention to, to senior year to hey, let's bring it on home, let's figure it out, the decisions should already be made. So, at what point does late stage college planning really take into effect? And what do you do specifically to make to ensure that students are making the right students and parents are making the right decisions moving forward?

SPEAKER_00 9:07

Right. So, right. So late stage planning really refers to the fact that you know college is here now, right? We really need to actually do the work of visiting colleges, figuring out how to apply to colleges, how are we going to pay for colleges? You know, there's planning around, well, colleges someday. I've got a two-year-old and they may go to college someday. Maybe we should save and invest, or maybe we should make some plans. But then when you have a 17-year-old that's a junior in high school, and they're you know, they're talking, well, we need to start visiting colleges, and college is becoming very real. Now it's a there's a much more complex planning process around visiting colleges. How do you find a school that's good fit? What will it actually cost? Will you get need-based aid? Will you get marit aid? You know, is there ways to reduce the cost? You know, you certainly can go to a private school for the cost of a public or even less for the right kids in the right situations. So if that's you, it would be good to know that. You know, Stanford just released uh not just in the last year or two, they had a press release where they essentially said that if your income is under a hundred thousand, then Stanford will cover all of tuition and all of room and board. So it makes Stanford essentially free. Now, a lot of people would say, Well, we can't afford Stanford. You'd you look at the price tag of $90,000-ish dollars, and most people would say, Nope, cross it off the list. But again, if your income is under $100,000, you should not cross it off the list because it won't cost that much, it'll be a low-cost option. Now, I think for most people, the real challenge is getting accepted to Stanford. You know, that you know, you need to be a rock star essentially in order to get accepted. Now, if you happen to have that rock star, put Stanford on the list. But there's lots of colleges out there that realize that they're competing with the state schools, and some of them can get within reason. Now, again, will will they all know? And it really depends on your student and their grades and uh academics and your financial situation. You know, how much need do you have and how much can you afford to spend? Um, so it's a pretty complicated situation, and I think that's what you know. So it's gonna take time, and lots of people don't like you know, figuring out working in the financial areas, they don't want to figure out budgets and how this is all gonna work. So it's something that you can easily avoid until you can't, and then and then it kind of hits the fan, and all of a sudden everybody's scrambling, and you know, the right answer is start earlier, you know, start freshman year, sophomore year, not end of junior year, which is how you know, again, I'm quite a bit older than you. So um, you know, when I went to college, it was you know I did drafting with a pencil, we registered and did all the there was no online, online didn't exist. So when we had to sign up for classes, we stood in a line in the gymnasium at the table for math class, and then when you got your turn, you picked your math class, yeah. Right. So dating myself a little bit, you know, a lot of parents will be able to rate relate to this. Um so that was the challenge. But because it's so expensive now, you know, when I when I was in school, it was not unusual for someone to take five or six years to figure out what they wanted to be when they grew up. And if they made mistakes and had to do things differently or whatever, it didn't matter that much. It wasn't that expensive that adding a year was oh my, now what? Um now most parents do not want to hear that they need an extra year for college because the price tag with that is is shocking. So what we're trying to do is you know, do it the best we can the first time, take advantage of all the opportunities that are out there, and it gets complicated. You know, every time the government says, Oh, well, you know, here's a group of people, we need we're gonna create a program that's gonna help kids that want to grow up to be engineers because we're short engineers or teachers or whatever it is. So they create all these different programs, and now that's one more layer of complexity. Now you need to figure out well, does my state have a program for teachers if that's what I want to be? Does my state have does the govern federal government have a program for teachers? What about the normal loan programs, the normal need-based aid programs, the normal FAFSA program? How does that all work? And how more specifically, how will it work for us? And I think a lot of families will say things like, Well, my brother-in-law didn't get any aid, therefore I won't, which is probably not true necessarily, right? Unless your brother-in-law is a you know, very similar, same income, same academic ability, same schools on the list, you know, all that. As soon as you start, you know, and that's where working with a professional comes in, is you know, I've seen all kinds of different plans and all kinds of different opportunities, you know, some for that geeky engineering kid, some for the performing artists, some for the you know, the the jock, etc. etc. And they all have their own path and they all have their own opportunities that you want to take advantage of.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

Whew, that was that was loaded, but I love but loaded in a great way, just because one, like you even brought back some memories for myself when it came to just the nightmare as we called it back then. And I say back then, like I'm I'm not so old, but as we called it, registering for classes. But now I almost feel bad for complaining after you're saying standing in lines and pencils and signing up. You know, we would get mad if the the online portal was taking too long to load and and we could get the class that we wanted, but y'all physically had to get up, be there, be present, and then still not even necessarily get maybe maybe get what you wanted to get in the when it's all said and done. So perhaps my gratitude is not was not showing enough back then, but it is definitely showing right now as you explained that to me. But no, something that was really unfamiliar to me, even as you mentioned, was getting prepared early. And like I said, you know, going to public school all of my life and just knowing that at some point I knew I had to go to college. Well, I didn't know I had to go, but I I knew I wanted to go to college, but I didn't necessarily know the steps that I needed to take what I should be doing now, what I should be doing then. And all those people who I would say were older than me per se, all they talked about was junior year, junior year, junior year, just make sure your junior year is good, you have fun your first two years, you do whatever. But now that I'm here and then I could have been taking steps every single year to make sure that I was even because you know, I would definitely say that my high school prepared us well. We were each assigned college counselors, we had a college interview day, we had all different types of resources and tips and tricks. But it was all about, it was all up to you to take advantage of it just to seem, you know, that was all included in our tuition. But how are you meeting with your college counselors? And are you not only meeting with them, but are you implementing and applying to what they're saying? You know, if they're saying that the common app needs to be done or that you need to fill out these essay questions by this date, then you need to make sure that that's done. If we're doing early decision or anything like that, you need to make sure that that's in applying for the financial aid is a totally different ballgame. So I understand that, you know, with this, the earlier the better at any point in time. And it's one thing to think about it, it's one thing to maybe know, have interest, but it's another thing to actually be applying yourself, to actually be building that foundation to make junior year a smooth process and to make senior year fun. And then you get out of there and you go have fun. Now, a question that something that I'm curious about, and I want to see maybe just how much you can speak to this. When it comes to financial aid, when it comes to merit versus need or it just financial aid in general, I guess maybe we can even speak to, I guess, more need-based in this. A connotation that a lot of us college students have was that we, and I don't know if this was us maybe just at times taking things personal, but we just felt like universities could be doing more, could be giving more, and they're not. You know, I looked at my school, East Carolina University, EastU, and even in some cases, we called it East Construction University because we always felt like something was being built. We always felt like something was happening, they were dishing money here, they were telling us this project should be ready by then, and then they kept prolonging it and prolonging it. We see a huge student center now that's now that we've graduated and it's so fancy, and we got restaurants we never heard of, and student stores and galore. So, do you feel like schools are finicky when it comes to financial aid? Do you feel like students could just be doing more of a due diligent process of securing and getting this aid and, like you said, preparing as early as possible? Do you feel like it's a culmination of both? What does it really look like when it comes to schools issuing aid to students? Is it a I understand that in some cases, you know, the earlier the better, but I also understand that they look at financial situations, income, maybe what you did prior, everything like that. What does that really look like for students who feel like they should be getting more and they're not necessarily always getting the rewards that they think they deserve, especially with schools being so expensive, too?

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Right. Well, yeah, so I mean, need-based aid is based on the income and the assets of the student and the parent. If the students 24 or younger, you know, the typical student rolling out of high school and going off to college, they're generally going to have to report mom and dad as well as their own finances. And again, most kids that are just rolling out of high school and going off to college, their finances are pretty easy because they don't have any money and they don't have any income and they're they're just a bunch of zeros. So now it's really based on mom and dad's income and assets. And need-based aid is kind of a weird, it has a weird effect, which essentially means they'll help you if you need it. So, by definition, that means you probably can't afford it without. So it kind of pushes everybody right to the line of what they can afford. Right? Because if the school is $50,000 and based on need calculations, you can only afford $30,000. Well, they'll give you the $20 to fill the gap. If your income's a little higher and you can afford $40,000, they'll give you the $10 to fill the gap. And if your income is really low, they might give you $45,000 and then you have to pay $5,000. But when your family income is $25,000 and you have to pay $5,000, that seems really expensive. When your family income's $120,000 and you have to pay $25,000, that seems expensive. When your family income's $210,000 and you have to pay $50,000, that seems expensive. And well, like again, as it should, because that's what need-based aid is all about, right? Is you only gonna get it if you need it. So if you can afford to pay for it without it, then you're not gonna get the aid. And so understanding how need-based aid works and you know, and getting something that you mentioned earlier, you have to also realize that students have their role, right? They're gonna have to do applications and essays and put up good grades and test scores and that stuff. And the parents kind of have a different role of they have to support the students in what we just mentioned, but they also probably are the ones that are gonna figure out need-based aid and merit aid. They're the ones that are gonna figure out well, can we afford a thousand a month for college? If we can, should we be saving it now? If we can't, can is it 500? Is it 200? You know, what how is this all gonna come together and how do we work that out? So the parents kind of have you know the financial stuff to deal with, and the students have the the getting admitted, and what do I want to be when I grow up, and all that stuff, and then all that has to come together in a plan that works for everyone, and I think that's the challenge that a lot of families are are up against. And a lot of times parents can do some of the stuff that they need to do, even though the student may not be ready, right? A typical freshman may not be mature enough to go visit colleges, but mom and dad could be saying, Well, I think we're gonna we should be saving a thousand a month for college, so let's get started. Or maybe they've already saved a thousand a month for many years, and now it's like, okay, is this enough? Or should we save more, depending on how many kids you have and what how much you think you're gonna spend, and you know, so it just takes that extra effort. And the reality of it is is a lot of families that have kids in grade school and middle school and high school are really busy and spending the time to think about college and you know, and again, there's some people that's their thing, right? They're they enjoy looking at investments and getting involved in finances and all that stuff, but not everybody does. And if you're it's not your thing, you still have to do it anyway. Or again, find someone to help you, and uh, but somehow it it's gonna have to be done. And if you can do it well, most of the time it saves you you know thousands of dollars or tens of thousands of dollars than if you do it poorly. And you know, so get to work, do it yourself. Hire someone, you know, get your brother-in-law to help, whatever it is, but don't ignore it because it's not going away.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

It's inevitable, one way or another. Like you said before, you know it, freshman year is gone, sophomore year is gone, junior years, that's that crucial piece. And then they're and then they're graduating. You know, I even think about now how just to put that in perspective, too, I thought I think about my little brother, how we're eight years apart, and how you know, when he was in high school, I was just telling him, All right, you know, it's freshman year, you'll be okay. You don't really got to think too much about it now. But those really should have been conversations that I was having with him, especially me being not an undergrad and graduate school, just in the preparation and wanting him to be as prepared as possible. But also, what I used to think about, but didn't necessarily apply to was that you know, you're going to a public school at the same time. You don't necessarily have all the resources, or we're not necessarily having all the same conversations that we should be having. So the early I'm I'm gonna continue to just enamor that the earlier the better with building that foundation, with making things happen for sure. So those are great points that you made. Now, a lot of what you do, does it come as conversations and meeting and working with parents more so, students more so, or is it kind of a combination and a balance of both?

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Yeah, I tend to 95% of my meetings are with parents, so I really do focus on the parent side of it. Um again, I come from a financial background and you know, investing and all that kind of stuff. Um, I don't help kids with essays, you know, I can't write any better than the average kid, and I can't help kids with what they want to be when they grow up. I'm just not qualified for those discussions. Now, there are people out there that do that, and sometimes we'll partner with somebody where I'm working with the parents on the pay for college side, and somebody else is working for the student on the how do we pick a college or how do we pick a career and that kind of stuff. So, and then that can be you know melded together. Um, but I think that's an another important challenge is some students are very focused and they know what they want to be, and it's just all you know, they've already got it figured out, it's all laid out in front of them, and some students really struggle with the undecided, or I really like science, but I really like math. Oh, and I also really like music, and now I'm struggling with should I be a musician, should I go into math? Should you know what I like everything, therefore it's hard for me to pick. And then there's the occasional student, I don't like anything. Now, what do I pick? Right? I don't, you know, and I think that's a caution too. Of I think one of the biggest challenges that a lot of politicians have done to us is college for everyone is not good advice. Right? There are situations where college is the right path, but some kids are gonna need to attend the school of hard knocks or start at a junior college or take a gap year or two, or you know, skip college and jump right into entrepreneurship. And then there's a lot of careers where you know, if you wanted to be a coder, you don't have to get a college degree in computer science. You can literally go to coding boot camps and study on your own and and become, you know, graphic design is another good one. Lots of people self-teach themselves on how to do certain things, and you don't necessarily have to have the degree. Matter of fact, the degree might slow you down. If your goal is rock star, literally, I'm gonna be a musician. Do you go to college and study guitar, or do you just get out there and form a band? You know, what what's gonna work? And you need to kind of understand you know what your options are.

SPEAKER_01 25:40

I I think that's such a crucial realization, too, especially in today's day and age, where it's been, I feel like that's almost kind of been like the traditional or the norm of an approach where you know you you just continue to go until you graduate school, you get a job, you have that family, marriage, everything like that. But you know, I think a lot of even more, I was even say more recently, like recently meaning probably like within the last five to six years, about just every more entrepreneurs emerging, more business owners coming about, more people just kind of taking their own stab at different things, taking that leap of faith, going different places. And I really think that the pandemic was a was a big responsibility for that. You know, I we we didn't hear about people graduating virtually, attending things virtually, really stepping out into their own things, but there was a demand at some point. You know, there were some places where you couldn't work or you were maybe you were laid off, or maybe just depending on how you were affected in this, you you had to take different options and different paths. And that's really where I think it really started to happen. Because I would even say with myself, like a lot of my friends, a lot of people who I grew up with and everything, that was just the road. After high school, we knew we were going to college. But now when I look at my little brother's generation, you see them split so many different ways, whether it be a social media way, whether it just be the trade way, whether it be like you said, if I just want to go start that band and just take that leap of faith and do what I want to do on my own, that's really what I'm gonna do. But no, to hear that a lot of your interactions, a lot of your conversations, a lot of the bulk of what you do is with the parents, I think that's the most important part. But to something I also think about now. Okay, so we talked about the like the late stage college planning. When working with these parents, when doing these meetings, when thinking about these high schoolers and everything who we're working with, how then involved are you once they then go to college? You know, because I recognize that with college, the process really doesn't change. You know, the financial aid is still gonna be there, still gonna be, you're gonna have to open that app every year, you're gonna have to fill it out, we're gonna have to make changes and updates and salary and do this and do that and everything like that. So are you still noticing that with even after working with the high schoolers, even after kind of getting them over that gap, getting them to college, getting them wherever they may be, getting them the need and the aid as they as it's all fit? Do you are you still continuously tapping in with these parents year after year? Are they still kind of reaching out to you for different tips and tricks for different ways that they can still even save once they get to college? You know, because I feel like that's the biggest thing too. And that's when you really start to see the bulk of your expenses. If you're living on campus versus off-campus, what classes you're taking, what books and everything you're getting. So, how closely involved or how has the process been with once you kind of help these parents get their students to college? What does it look like after that?

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Right. Yeah, so I mean, a lot of a lot of the people I work with, we we go on and do other financial planning, and you know, so the very typical parent is, well, we're gonna figure out college and then we have five years off, and then we're gonna retire, or we're gonna figure out college and retire immediately, and then for some parents that are older, it's like, well, we're gonna retire while college is still happening, and you know, so figuring out you know, those two goals are almost always top of mind for the families I'm working with. And it's probably self-selection too, right? People don't reach out to me if they don't have kids in college or kids in high school. Um, but working on both of those goals, you know, again from the big picture perspective, if you can be more efficient on retirement and you know, save some taxes or whatever so you have more money for retirement, well then you can contribute less to retirement and more to college. If you can make college more efficient, then you can divert that other that money to retirement. And if you can get them both figured out really well, then you can add a third goal. Maybe it's a vacation or a whatever it might be. And I think for a lot of families, it's how do we get all these things you know all done at a reasonable, you know, nobody wants to retire when they're 90. Some people are happy with 70, some people are happy with 62, you know, and it's a big difference if you want to retire at 70 or 62, and how college will impact that can have a big impact as well.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

Got it. I like that. You know, I I I think you yeah, you played out a lot of different scenarios, and I'm almost kind of laughing now because I I've kind of seen differences in different ones, you know, having the older parents that are just trying to, you know, just trying to send them off and just make sure that he gets there safely or she's safely. And then from there, you know, let's start to think about what we're gonna do here. But ultimately, what I'm what I'm the consistency, the commonality through all of this is just the planning, it's just that foundation, it's just making sure that you have some sort of blueprint, some sort of something to reference, to go, we're not just winging it, we're not just, you know, because college can be a wing in itself from deciding on that major to deciding that once you get in that major, that's something that you like and that you want to stick with, or maybe the classes are too hard to prereqs, to give certain things, to financial aid, to everything. Sometimes a lot of what can deter people from one way or another could just be pricing. And you know, if I know that I have to pay more to do this, to do all of that, and I'm gonna have more schooling, and even after this, I'm not done. Well, hold on, maybe I might want to, you know, maybe I might want to pivot this way a little bit too, just the same. So it's interesting to hear because and I always like to kind of ask people that that question of what the experience is like working with you, because I want them to also make them feel like it's a personalized approach time and time again. And each time I get that, you know, when I go through your website, when I go through even the information that was sent to me about you, I can definitely hear that I tailor that, you know, because it's it's part of it. And I love the way the website is split in one portion, it's part of it about what you're doing from the parents' perspective, and then another part is about what you're doing from the student's perspective. But the part that stood out to me the most had to be around, and I feel like because it's something that's come up more recently in the years, as we've talked about, is when it comes to business owners and entrepreneurs and still wanting to attend college and make the most of your experience and get those benefits. So, as I was kind of telling you, you know, I'm not gonna say back in my day, but when I was preparing for college in 2014, you know, there were not a lot of business owners, there were not a lot of entrepreneurs, there were not a lot of people doing that. Now, when I got to college, you know, I noticed people started to have their own side hustles, do different things, brand themselves, and everything of the sort like that. But now, with my little brother, you know, him going into his junior year now, so three years ago, there have been an influx of people just having their own brands of high schoolers doing their own thing, LLC in their businesses, you know, different things of the sort like that. So, how can how can students that are business owners just the same, that are entrepreneurs, that have their own brands and everything like that, how can they still make the most out of what they're doing on the side, but also still go to college, still get that education, and still make sure that at the end of the day, that finances and everything are taken care of? Do you have anything around like tips or tricks or even strategies that business owners or that those students can be thinking about as they look to still further their career but their education simultaneously?

SPEAKER_00 32:29

Right. Yeah, so certainly there's you know, students out there that instead of go getting a summer job, they have some sort of side hustle instead. So I work with a family where their son was uh had a an eBay business and he was buying and selling all kinds of things, but one of his niches at the time was swimming pools because it was through the pandemic and it was just hard to get your hands on a swimming pool, and lots of people wanted to put a swimming pool in their backyard because you couldn't go, you know, the public pools were closed and everything else, so so he found that if he could find the swimming pools, he could sell them. So he had different ways of getting his hands on swimming pools, and then he would sell them on eBay, and he was turning you know profit in the tens of thousands of dollars. Um and then, of course, as he was doing this now, now all of a sudden he started having inventory and uh and it got to be a you know a real business that took some real business skills to manage and that type of stuff. So but again, it was a very decent side hustle for him, and you know, again, and parents could be doing the exact same thing. They're either gonna have their day job and then have a side hustle to help pay for college. But there's a lot of strategies that you can then use within that to you know reduce your taxes. You know, a lot of parents can hire their kids into the business and pay them a wage, and you get some tax savings that way. And the kids could hire the parents into the business potentially and get some tax savings, um, just depending on where the tax brackets land and that kind of stuff. So it's you know, so there's some tax planning around that. You can also set up tuition reimbursement plans. Um like here in Wisconsin, businesses can contribute to college for their employees and get deductions for it. So on your Wisconsin tax return. So if you happen to live in Wisconsin, you could set up a uh contribution plan to a retirement, or maybe contribution to a 529 savings plan, and that may help. So there's lots of different things that you can do, it's just a matter of which ones will work from a tax perspective, from uh you know, but because there's more opportunities, you can set your salary, you can move it, move income, move assets around. There's more moving parts, there's more opportunities to plan.

SPEAKER_01 35:09

Don't give us don't give us too many ideas now, Brad. You don't want to, you don't want us to be too successful, you don't want us to be too taken care of, you know. But no, that's that's interesting. And I said I think it's so prevalent now because, like we said, you know, whereas before, it it wasn't as it wasn't really as many, or or like you said, even during the pen, that's actually so interesting. And I smiled about that because wow, I literally remember the the swimming pools, and I remember how everything was closed and how a lot of people with backyards, front yards, they were either in-grounding things or trying to even make the inflatable ones or doing something with us. So the fact that wow, that somebody capitalized on that like that through eBay, that's amazing to hear. But no, I always think that before we say that something is too late or just like we can't do it, or we don't know, or whatever to have you, you know, you you explore and you exhaust all those options and all those resources. As you said, you know, a child could bring the parents into the business, depending on where you live, different rules and ramifications you could fit into something. You know, I don't know how many Wisconsin people that we have on here, but I'm pretty sure that you know there were a lot of people that, if they hear that about Wisconsin, maybe if they did some research where they are particularly, you could find something along those lines or even something different that'll allow you to be successful, allow your child to be successful and allow them also to take advantage of everything that comes with college. So another, I guess another curiosity that I have is the marketing behind all of this. You know, I recognize that as I said, I needed you years ago. You would have, you know, you would have made life easier for all of us, especially from a first generation perspective, whereas a lot of times, you know, I was just going directly to my counselors and asking them a lot of questions and things like that. And a lot of it too was the influence of my parents at the time and just them kind of wanting, not necessarily wanting things their way, but them always just putting different options in my ear. And it kind of just, you know, just when you think I'm gung-ho and I'm set on this, now I hear this, and now I'm thinking, like, wow, that may not be that bad. So when it comes to what you're doing specifically, how does a lot, how how do a lot of parents, how do a lot of even students, I'm sure, discover you? How is this like a is this like word of mouth? Is this something are you implemented in other like high schools and in the Wisconsin area? Are there different partnerships or things that you developed over the years? What does a lot of that look like when it comes to the clientele and a lot of the families that you've worked with?

SPEAKER_00 37:16

Yeah, well, I do a lot of work on podcasting. Um, and I've got my own podcast, I've got uh my website with all kinds of free resources, so that's you know, pretty much where we focus. But um and we do some online webinars and partnerships and work with some of the local high schools, and so but that's always a work in progress. That's you know, getting the word out. Most people don't know that this type of help exists, so that's part of the mess mission is to get the word out there.

SPEAKER_01 37:49

And I I was about to really just piggyback on that to say that you know, I feel like a lot of why people are just so misinformed or they just kind of take matters into their own hands, or maybe they're not as prepared as they could be, is that, you know, sometimes even us as parents, as students, we don't do our due diligence on exhausting everything, on looking up everything. You know, the first time we don't yield the necessary result that we want, or the first time we don't get it how we want, we just kind of throw our hands up. And especially with college. And especially I think the parent perspective is even a little bit different. And granted, I haven't sent the child to college yet, but I'm not gonna speak on that too far just because I don't want to adopt this mindset. But I feel like sometimes with the parents, it could be one of two things, or maybe one of multiple things. But two of those things that come to mind was to be, well, if you have, if if you personally as a parent never went to college, then you may feel as though, you know, you don't have much of a, I guess you don't really have much of an impact. You know, you don't really may, maybe you feel like you're not speaking from a place of education, or how maybe you feel like you can't necessarily help your student when you really can. As we said, you know, planning involves all parties. And whether you have that college experience or not, I feel like there are still things, as you said, you know, you could be thinking about freshman year taking your son or your daughter to these schools to just get the to just expose them to that atmosphere to get things going so that way by their junior year, oh, I've been to eight different campuses, I know about this, I know to go here to do this, I know that this is and this, I know what cost of living means, I know room and board, expenses and everything, you know. So, but I also feel like too sometimes parents speak from a perspective of wanting their children to follow a certain road or a certain route. And then when that when that doesn't happen, it's kind of just gone. But I also feel like we just as people, as much as you do, you know, I'm sure that you've done countless amounts of research. I'm sure that you've had countless conversations with different people, and I'm sure that even with all the expertise and experience you have, you're still learning, even to this day, with rules changing with different areas. Like you said, the rule within Wisconsin is probably something that you had to learn in different and working with other people in other places, you know. So I'm sure that it's always necessary that you're always having to remain a student of the game. So I love that you say that too, because uh sometimes I think too, it has to be like I'm I'm pretty sure that obviously everybody that you come across, you want to help them, you want to ensure that they're set up for success as best as possible. But the people, the parents, the students, they have to do the work too. You can only take people, but so far, you can only do much, you can only meet people, but at some point before you have to say, okay, all right, look, this is not my child, you know, but I want you guys to be just as successful and make things happen. So I get that. Now, something I also think about too is just the future outlook as well. I think about while kids are just never going to stop going to college. College is probably tuition is probably never gonna stop increasing different programs and everything like that, rules are gonna be changing. But I also think, you know, with the with where we are right now in the world, there are so many different possibilities. Whereas, you know, back then college was it was only one or two, it was only a couple of places you were about to go, but now you have so many different ways to go. So when thinking about what you're doing and thinking about all the what comes with the industry from the creativity to just the adaptation and adjustments, is there anything that, and I don't want to spoil any surprises, I don't want to give away too much without um if it's not that time yet, but I like to ask this question because I like to give people something to look forward to. So as we continue through the rest of this year, even think about 2025, but continuously just helping college students as well as I mean high school students, parents, and college students, just the same. Is there anything that you're looking to get more involved in? Any even perhaps new ventures that you're taking on? I know you said that things are always a work in progress. So from podcasting to your own show to even the partnerships locally and globally. Is there anything that you're looking forward to? Anything that we can keep our eye out for? Because I know that business owners and entrepreneurs, we're always working, we're always thinking, even behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_00 41:27

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I'm I am working on putting together a college planning course where people will be able to, you know, at least it's likely to be called college planning jumpstart, where it'll help people get get you started. It's not gonna get you all the way to the end, but for a lot of people, they don't even know where to start and what information they need to know and and how to put it all together. So that's one of our goals, and uh yeah, so that's one of the things that for sure that you know is in my future. I just no promises as to when exactly it'll get done because you know we always think we'll have it done in three weeks or six weeks, and it turns out to be six months, and uh yeah, so we'll see.

SPEAKER_01 42:11

Something I've learned as a uh as a business owner, as a podcaster is to stop giving deadlines to people because I tell you I'm gonna have this by then, and even I but I well with my episodes, I stick to a pretty succinct schedule. But you know, I've told people that I'm gonna have this edited or I'm gonna do this by then, and like you said, six days turns into months, and then months turn into more months, and then you're following up, and people are nudging you and pushing different things in that. Sometimes you even forget certain commitments or promises that you made. So, yeah, so I've learned to just try to keep it it's gonna, it's gonna be out there. I will tease whatever, I'll put it out there, it's gonna get there. I'm not putting any timelines on it or deadlines on it. We're just gonna make it happen. But no, I love to hear that because as you spoke to the starting point, that could be arguably the hardest thing because you don't necessarily you know what to do. You know, we're we're we're looking at parents' perspectives and we're looking at what parents want versus what the student wants and who is it really about here, who's paying for it, can be a lot of back and forth when it's all said and done. So I love to hear that you're moving in that direction to really just you know map it all out for people. Now, with that, before we wrap things up, before we close out, before we tell people where they can find you from websites and social media, do you feel like there's anything that we haven't touched on today? Even any last words that you may want to leave for people coming across this episode, whether they be students, parents, other business owners or entrepreneurs, anything like that?

SPEAKER_00 43:26

Yeah, I think Nike did it well when they said just do it.

SPEAKER_01 43:32

See, I don't think anybody's ever used that for their last words. So, Brad, you just, you know, you just set the tone right there with the with the uniqueness there. But no, I love it. I like you said, it's no point of thinking about it, it's no point of procrastinating on and stressing about it. Just get it done. It's inevitable. It's gonna, whether we put it off for tomorrow, it's still gonna have to be done. Whether we put it off till junior year, it's still gonna have to happen. So, do you want to make it that much harder when that time comes, or do you want to just ease into that transition because you use the jumpstart? So now, before we we end. This completely, we need arguably to me the most important part the call to action, as I like to call it. I love to always, you know, leave the episode with where everybody can find you, how they can tap in with you from social media to websites to where they can be on the lookout for the jump start when that time comes. So just give us everything you got as far as the best places to reach and contact you.

SPEAKER_00 44:18

Right. I mean, everything we do is at the website. So it's all at TamingTheHighCostofcollege.com. So we've got a podcast by that name. You can follow links there. There's phone numbers on our website. There's lots of free resources, like an uh financial aid calculator and uh cost of colleges by state. So you can look up some numbers on all the colleges in your state. Um number of different resources that can help you. Um scholarship guide for busy parents, another great resource that's out there for free. Um, yeah, so we'll just hit the website and it's all there.

SPEAKER_01 44:56

And to hear that you are even offering a lot of these resources for free is is amazing too. And I thank you for that, just because you know, there was a lot of time that was taken to put all this stuff together. There's probably money that had to be spent. There was editing and different things that had to be done. There was confirming, you know, because we can't necessarily always believe everything that we just get at base value, at surface value, you then have to go look. Things are always changing, expanding. But I'm gonna say it again, wow. I uh Brad, I needed you in 2014. I really needed you from 2010 to 2014 to make my 2014 that much easier. But you know, we're here we and I did it twice, so I really could have used you in 2018, then again, just the same. But no, I really do one appreciate all the work that you're doing. You know, I spoke with um, I spoke with someone in the college space episodes ago. He actually runs an AI company called Truth, and he really helps parents when it comes to decision making, to matching, to figuring out where it is you need to go. And I really feel like all of this is important because there's so much information, there's so much misinformation, there's so many people who kind of just wanted tunnel vision in my way or the highway, not recognizing the endless amount of possibilities that are out here now, from business owners to entrepreneurs to trades to people just wanting to take their own route, to students sometimes not necessarily knowing what they want to do, where they could have grown up all their life loving and liking this, but by the time they got to school and by the time they really had to do their due diligence every day, this is not really it. So, Brad, honestly, the work that you've already put in, the work that you're putting in, and then the work that you're gonna put in, it speaks it speaks monuments. And I definitely just want to thank you. I want to thank everybody, the team over there, you guys are working hard, you guys are doing amazing things in Wisconsin and beyond. And I'm definitely excited to one, just tap into the journey where we are right now, but just to continue to see everything from the jumpstart go live to whatever other initiatives and ideas come along the way. So, to everybody out there, too, who's tapped in with us today, whether you joined us live, whether you're listening at a later date, I thank y'all. I love y'all. This has been another episode of the Down to Business Podcast here with Tamar Turner.